quinta-feira, 17 de maio de 2018

Of suffering and pain

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Today I read a friend's comment about suffering and pain:

Today Catholic TV has talked a lot about the importance of our sacrifices and suffering as essential for our salvation... to the point of putting as headline, and example, the most famous blind singer in the world, turning kneeling to the little chapel of Fatima.
Reflecting on this "command" of the Catholic spiritual guides, I was tremendously confused because I have never seen human suffering and sacrifice from that perspective. And I'm not going to change after I'm old.
The more we exalt and avail ourselves of our sufferings for our salvation, the less value we give to the suffering of Christ who gave his blood to the last drop for the salvation of all men.
Why not tell these people, who are scourging and dragging themselves on the ground, that the suffering of Christ was more than enough?
What is lacking for our salvation are our good works, our forgiveness to those who offend us, our love for God and for others as Christ has loved us....
Shedding our blood to forgive our sins is not part of the catalog of works of mercy!
Whenever I preach on the cross I am telling the world that Christ's death was not worth to me or was insufficient!
Bend your knee in front of the Christ on the Cross has nothing to do with dragging your knees across the floor! Bend the knee means gratitude and recognition; dragging the knees means a lack of trust in God the Father and contempt for what Christ has done for each one of us.
Our mission is: Go into all the world and take the good news of the gospel to all men.
If we continue in this rhythm, on our knees, we will not get very far.... as walking sloths, we will be left behind by more intelligent and faster movements
.... (Canon Abílio De Vasconcelos)


I agreed with parts of the thinking, but it seems to me that there is a more important perspective. Read and comment.

There is another perspective.
To accompany Jesus in the suffering of the cross, to keep His company at this hour, living in this age. Unite and commune with Jesus. Not to the point of committing suicide or of inflicting blood blows on me, but of seeking the desert from various points of view, depriving myself of the comfort, deprivation of play, deprivation of pleasure, as I feel more One with Jesus and with so many brothers and sisters who suffer today a painful and long journey, they also communing the pain of Jesus that is imposed upon them. Happiness is not always accompanied by the washing machine (Mother Teresa of Calcutta), nor the enjoyment of sunbathing (vitamin D) on the esplanade of the Sanctuary of Fatima. More than a different perspective, I launch the possibility of this alternative.

Orlando de Carvalho

*Photo from mediotejo.net 

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